Just after she was granted a protective order for domestic abuse, an undocumented immigrant woman was arrested in El Paso, Texas, last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

According to the El Paso Times, the woman, who El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal says identifies as transgender, is a Mexican citizen who has been living in Texas. Earlier this month, the woman filed a protective order against her boyfriend for alleged abuse, and an advocate from the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse, drove her to the courthouse for the hearing. While she was there, federal immigration officials arrived at the courthouse and placed her under arrest after receiving an anonymous tip, one which Bernal believes came from the woman's boyfriend—a man who is currently in jail on a charge of forgery of a financial document.

A criminal complaint on file for the incident states that the arrest took place outside of the building, but Bernal says that six ICE agents were waiting for the woman inside the courthouse. The same complaint says that the woman had been deported six times since 2010 for arrests related to possession of stolen mail, false imprisonment, or assault, but Bernal told The Washington Post that the woman had no current outstanding state warrants.

In her role, Bernal often represents victims of domestic violence and abuse when they come to her office seeking court orders against their abusers. According to Bernal, under county policy, officials do not ask crime victims about their immigration status in order to guarantee that they are given fair treatment under the law.

“Our clients come to us at the lowest point in their lives,” Bernal told the El Paso Times. “Many of them are so frightened of coming to us because of possible immigration concerns.”

Since taking office, President Donald Trump has promised to "crack down" on immigration and recently used executive orders to expand the role of immigration officials and give them the power to individually decide if an undocumented person is eligible for arrest. Over the past several weeks, hundreds of men and women have been detained nationwide, but ICE asserts that these are merely "routine" operations. Immigration activists, however, fear that these policies will prevent immigrants who are victims of crime and violence from coming forward out of fear that they will be removed from the country and separated from their families.

"Women being able to call 911 and report domestic violence without fear they will be deported—that is what's at stake," Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, recently told Glamour. "Immigrants will be afraid to report a crime, and this will undermine public safety for everyone."